Scotland on Sunday: ISAs give savers false sense of security

In Sunday 4th May’s edition of Scotland on Sunday, financial journalist Jeff Salway wrote that ‘pension savers and investors are piling millions into seemingly cautious investment funds unaware of the risk they may be taking’.

The news came after new figures from the Investment Management Association (IMA) revealed that ordinary ISA investors are turning in growing numbers to funds that invest in different types of assets.

As explained in the article, the best selling sector in recent months has been the “mixed investment 20-60 per cent shares” sector, however Investment Director, Barry O’Neill, said: “The 20-60 per cent shares sector is such a broad church that it’s almost worthless for comparison purposes.”

It is claimed in the article that the surge of cash into mixed investment 20-60 funds may be ‘driven by the rise of the DIY investor’, after rule changes last year left more people without access to investment advice.

Barry said: “It’s possible that people aren’t aware of the level of risk they’re taking, especially if they are investing on a DIY basis without advice.

“If you’re doing that it just places an extra burden of due diligence on you, so it’s vital to get under the bonnet to see what drives the performance and what could cause a crash.”

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